It wasn’t too long ago that the failed idea for a previously planned Rambo TV series reared its head again, and now it looks like Millennium Media, who own the rights to the IP, could well be looking at reviving the idea as well as considering the same treatment for another Stallone franchise, The Expendables. There are some big things happening in TV at the moment, with streaming platforms screaming out for new content, quite a bit of which has been revamping old movie franchises such as Amazon Prime’s I Know What You Did Last Summer and the upcoming Alien series, so it was only a matter of time before the likes of Rambo came back on the radar.
Sylvester Stallone has suggested that he would consider one more Rambo movie about him returning back to the Native American reservation he grew up on, but on the whole a new TV series based on the war veteran would likely reboot the franchise with a new actor in the title role and a clean sheet story to take Rambo back to his roots. Or perhaps it will go even further back as a prequel to First Blood, there is quite a lot of scope to work with once they break free of the chains of the movie franchise, which without Stallone is pretty much dead in the water.
When it comes to The Expendables, Stallone is also seemingly done with that franchise too, having completed filming his scenes for the upcoming fourth installment. The movie series debuted in 2010 with Stallone writing, directing and starring in the film alongside a who’s who of action heroes including Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke. In the sequels that followed, the list of iconic stars grew to add Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson, and by 2014’s The Expendables 3 it looked like the geriatric bandwagon had rolled to a stop. However, seven years later and we are heading back into the action again with pretty much the same crew, and the suggestion that while Stallone is bowing out, he is leaving the future of the franchise in the hands of co-star Jason Statham. With that in mind, it is hard to work out where a TV series might go and whether any of the stars of the movies will be dropping in.
Millennium Media president Jeffrey Greenstein told The Hollywood Reporter that although they are only in the early development stages, there is definitely a plan to expand their TV range using their best known IPs. “Our focus has always been on feature film, we do have a slate of TV that we’re developing. But my plan is to focus on our IP within the TV space and build out Has Fallen TV, Rambo TV, Expendables TV. We’re playing around with Hellboy TV. So there are lots of opportunities, but I really want to launch something IP-driven first before we start developing original content.”
Of all the options named by Greenstein, the Rambo series is probably the safest bet to actually make it to screen, with The Expendables also a good shout, however anyone expecting the Hellboy TV series should maybe remember that the rebooted movie was a complete box office disaster in 2019 so it may not the highest priority. While we wait of developments on this front, we can always make do with The Expendables 4, which will arrive in theaters sometime in 2022. This news originated at The Hollywood Reporter.
Source: movieweb.com